Car-route indicator.



No. 702,8l9. Patented June 17, I902.

m. 0. PARENTEAU.

GAR ROUTE INDICATOR.

(Application filed Dec. 13, 1900.)

(No Model.)

Ullll 1 n1 UNITED STATES PATENT ()EEICE.

MAXIME O. PARENTEAU, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

CAR-ROUTE INDICATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent NO. 702,819, dated June 17,1902.

Application filed December 13, 1900. Serial No. 39,640. (No model.)

I0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MAXIME O. PARENTEAU, a citizen of the United States,residing at Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State ofMassachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inCar-Route Indicators, of which the following is a specification.

My improvements relate to mechanism for illuminating the face of acar-route-indicator sign, and have for their object a strongerillumination than heretofore, so that the lettering upon the sign can beread at a greater distance, and also for their object a multiplicationof the number of routes that can be indicated upon the face of therotatable sign in common use upon the tops of street-cars.

The invention consists in the combination and arrangement as hereinafterdescribed, and more particularly pointed out in the claims.

My invention is fully illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in'whichFigure I is a side elevationof so much of a street-car as is necessaryto illustrate the invention combined therewith. Fig. II is a top planView of the same. Fig. III is an enlarged broken vertical sectional viewof the lantern resting upon its base. Fig. IV is a top view of theinterior of the lantern, the cover being thrown open. Fig. V is apartial detail view, and Fig. VI is a plan view, of one of thelantern-slides.

Referring to the drawings, B is a lantern having the lenses 2), adapted,as in the magic lantern, to be adjustable and to concentrate a lightwithin the lantern upon a limited and well-defined field in front ofthem, and for the purposes of my invention it is immaterial whether thelens reverses the figure it throws or whether such reverse is corrected.The employment of an electric-light bulb c with a reflector dis alsocommon in a lantern. The lantern B provided with these well-knownfeatures is specially adapted for the purposes of my invention, asfollows: D is a base securely bracketed to the car 0 at one end and atits other adapted to seat the lantern in a horizontal plane, beingperforated in the center of the seat to permit the passage therethroughof the stem of handle it and being provided in a line with its medialcenter with The base D is made so solid as to have no vibrationindependent of the car, and in practice the face of a sign soilluminated from the outside is much plainer to read than one illu-'minated from its interior.

In Fig. I thelantern is supposed to illuminate the face of a signprovided With solid black letters.

The lantern B has firmly secured to its back end a dowel-pin n, which,passing through socket i in the base D and having a set-screw 'y throughthe socket, furnishes a means of raising the lantern from the base andthere securing it, as well as away of adjusting the lantern upon thehorizon and there securing it. In the bracket and lantern in theposition shown there is nothing to interfere materially with a clearview of the face of the sign; but the lantern is quickly removable whenit is not needed in the day-time by simply de-* taching the electricfeed-wire to the lamp, loosening the set-screw holding the pin it, andlifting the lantern from its'base D, in which a hole is left to permitthe passage therethrough of the handle h, as indicated in dotted lines,Fig. III. Thelantern thus removed when not needed may be as quicklyreplaced at the time when the headlights are put in place for nightservice.

In order to multiply the number of routes which may be indicated uponthe face of the rotatable sign, generally provided with four sides, oneside is left blank, as shown in Fig. II, as a field upon which to beprojected images in the form of letters from the lantern B. In thelantern a slide-case I is rotatably seated upon the bottom of thelantern, so as to be capable of rotating in a horizontal plane upon acenter coincident with that of the lantern, and is provided with acentraldownwardextending stem through the base D, terminated by ahandle-knob h, which is in convenient reach of the conductor ormotorman.

The top surface of the case I is provided with sockets m as a convenientmeans of seating the slides t by receiving their lower ends therein. InFig. IV one of these sockets is shown, and the slides are so combinedwith the case as to be capable of being interposed one at a time betweenthe lantern-lamp and the lens or lenses through the rotation of thecase. In the drawings eight faces are shown formed of as many slides,and in practice one of these faces is left without any slide or withplain glass, so that the lantern can be employed only to illuminatethelettered faces of the sign. The slides t are preferably formed of glass,though they may be made of thin opaque materialhavingthe letterscutthrough them in stencil form, as I have found in practice thatilluminated letters projected upon the field are much more brilliantthan solid letters upon an illuminated background.

The electric bulb c and reflector d are attached to the lantern-top, asshown in Fig. IV, so as to follow it when thrown open and so that bothtake their place within the slides when the top is closed, as shown inFig. III.

As shown in Figs. III and V, the bottom of case I rests upon a track at,fixed to the bottom of the lantern and of a corresponding diameter, andspurs or detents z, fitting into corresponding depressions e in thetrack, are so spaced as to permit each of the slides to cocupy in turn aposition square across the space between the bulb and the lens, as it isonly necessary to push up by the handle h the slide-case until the spursride on top of 1 rack 00, when the case can be rotated until Ihe desiredslide is in position and then dropped to be locked in place. Pins in thebottom. of the case I, fitting into corresponding holes 1h rough thebottom of the lantern, would he an obvious equivalent.

As letters thrown upon a field at an angle would he magnified inproportion to their disiance from the. lens, and so distort thewordIheyspelled, I have found it necessary to correct such aberration byforming the letters as shown on the slide, Fig.VI, and as the angle is aconstant one and the distance a fixed one there is no difficulty informing the words so that their letters will take the same place on theblank sign that they would if they were painted to be permanent. Bythese means notonly are the names of routes on the sign in common usebrilliantly illuminated, but in addition a large number of routes can beadded to supplement the few unchangeably attached to the sign, which isa great advantage where, as in large cities, there are many routes whereit is desirable to shift a car to at short notice and which has not beendone for want of indicators possessed by the car.

Now having described my invention, what I claim is- 1. In acar-routeindicator, the combination with a revoluble polygonal sign, having aplurality of indicator-faces and one blank face, of a lantern inposition to illuminate all the faces of the sign, and a series ofmovable transparent slides for the lantern, which slides carry indiceswhich may be thrown on the blank face of the sign, substantially asdescribed.

2. In a car-route indicator and in combina- 7 tion, a revolublepolygonal sign having one blank face, a lantern in position toilluminate the face of the sign, and a series of transparent slides onebeing blank and all mounted end to end and constituting approximatelyaring arranged to rotate about the light within the lantern, so as topass the light from the lantern through any one of the slides andexhibit the same on the sign.

3. The combination with a revoluble sign havinga blank face acting as ascreen, of a lantern arranged at an angle to said screen, andatransparent slide connected to the lantern and having letters on itsface differing in size in determined relation to the screen, so that theletters on the screen may appear of uniform size, substantially asdescribed.

4. In a car-route indicator, the combination of a lantern having aplurality of movable transparent slides, with a movable sign-carrierhaving a plurality of sign-faces, any one of which faces can be turnedinto the illumihating-field of the lantern, and serve as a screentherefor.

M. O. PARENTEAU.

\Vitnesses: R. F. HYDE, H. S. CULLUMUs.

